¶ Navigating Chronic Illness With Universal Drugstore
Welcome back my Spoonie sisters . I'm your host , jennifer Weaver , and today we have an important episode I know many of you will love . Navigating chronic illness can often feel like a full-time job , especially when it comes to managing medications , dealing with high prescription costs and making sure you have access to what you need .
That's why I'm excited to introduce you to two amazing guests today from Universal Drugstore . Laura will tell us all about the resources her company provides to help patients afford and access their medications . We'll also be joined by their in-house pharmacist , jamie , to dive into the clinical side of things .
Whether you're struggling with rising drug prices or just curious about how international drug stores can benefit people with chronic conditions , this episode will provide insight and practical advice . So let's jump in . Hi , laura and Jamie . How are you two today ?
Good .
Happy to be here . I'm so glad to have you two here and for listeners who may not be familiar with what Universal Drugstore is , can you start by explaining what you do and how your service supports patients managing chronic illnesses ?
For sure To introduce myself as well . I'm Laura . I'm very happy to be here and , as I've told you , Jen , when I was a kid I actually had juvenile arthritis growing up , so this podcast definitely strikes a very personal chord for me .
I genuinely am very happy to be here now , representing a company that hopes to play a small role in easing the chronic condition journey . But back to your question .
The way I like to frame it is first by starting with the landscape of where we are today , and that is the fact that currently in the US , 130 million people battle chronic conditions every day , with actually 42% having more than one .
And as you know , as your listeners know , having a chronic condition is stressful enough , and being able to afford the medication that enables you to take care of your kids , go to work and just live your everyday life should not be contributing to that stress .
But unfortunately , in the US , medication costs actually are 150% more versus neighboring countries , which is wild . But that is where Universal Drugstore plays a role .
That is absolutely mind-boggling to me . I know .
I know Same , and so this is really where we come into play , and that is the fact that UDS is Canada's most established prescription referral services . We've actually been operating for over 20 years . I believe we were established in 2001 . But what we do is we essentially help give individuals access to more affordable medication .
So what we do is our service connects patients with a licensed pharmacist at an international pharmacy , so , for example , in Canada , where , with a valid prescription , they can purchase the same brand name or generic medication for up to 80% less versus US pharmacies , and the medication is then delivered right to your doorstep .
So to go along with that . How exactly does that work ? What is your sourcing process ?
Yes , great question . So essentially , what we do is we only work with licensed pharmacies who source their medication from pharmaceutical companies . So , like any pharmacy in the US or in Canada or the UK , they would source their medication from pharmaceutical companies .
So , like any pharmacy in the US or in Canada or the UK , they would source their medication from manufacturers like Janssen , pfizer , novo Nordisk . And also all of the medication from those pharmacies have to be approved by the equivalent body to that country's FDA . So , for example , in Canada , canada doesn't actually have an FDA . That is an American thing .
We have Health Canada , which is our governing body , but if you think about it , pharmaceutical companies essentially manufacture medication and that it is globally distributed . So we simply connect the customer with the pharmacy that they can then import the medication .
Wow . So a lot of people with chronic illnesses . They also worry about the cost of long-term medications . So how can Universal Drugstore help patients save money while still getting the medications that they need ?
Yeah , great question . And I would say for UDS , the biggest thing that we offer is our price . We spend a lot of time doing price analytics to just make sure that our prices are good and we're offering customers the best value we can .
And sometimes , due to the market or landscape changes , we're able to lower our prices , which we do , and then we let our customers know . So I would say , at the bare minimum , we have a base price that is very strong , and then , in addition to that , we also have other layers , like a loyalty program .
So every dollar you spend you can collect loyalty points and those points will be contributed to a purchase , your next purchase , kind of thing . And then we also have a series of promo codes . We're actually offering one to listeners today . I don't know where it'll go , but maybe link in bio Show notes , definitely the show notes , right , show notes everyone .
So you can save 15% off if you listen today but we definitely value price at the foremost to be extremely transparent . That's wonderful . So to go with that , what says Universal Drugstore apart from other online international pharmacies , and what are the key benefits for people who choose to use your service ?
Yeah . So the thing that I always come back to is that we have been operating for over 20 years , so we really do have a track record of safety and success , and we've had customers that have been with us for many , many years , so something is working well . So that definitely is encouraging .
But when I'm doing my own research on the business , I always look at the reviews , I look at what our customers are saying , and a clear thing that always comes up over and over again is our customer service team .
I know from my own experience purchasing medicine , dealing with the healthcare system all of that is a very vulnerable process , and I don't want to deal with a email service or a bot . I want to talk to a person , I want clarity , I want transparency , and that is what we offer . We do not use robots .
We use real people who Jamie and I both know , and they are there through every step of the journey , and so that is definitely something that I have heard from our consumers really sets us apart .
And then the last thing I'll just plug to is we have over 4,000 medication on our website in OTC , prescription medicine and even some pet medicine , so we just do have a really strong assortment , so chances are too , you'll be able to find the medicine you're looking for .
That's fantastic and I bet consumers can find something they're not even expecting to find on there .
Yep , for sure . Yeah , maybe for your pet who knows Absolutely .
Can you walk us through the process ? Oh , Jamie , did you have something to chime in ?
And sometimes there are actually generics available in other countries before they are available in the US , which helps with cost obviously , Because the US just has such a stringent way they work with patents that other countries just don't do so . Sometimes that helps .
And I think that's probably where you would come in really handy too , because you could probably tell us about the generics we don't even know about .
Yes , that is a good point , though , is our system will connect the customer with whichever country offers the same medicine for the lower price , so I think that's a really good point to emphasize .
Wow , that's amazing . Now can you walk us through the process of ordering medication through the universal Drugstore ? What can a first-time customer expect ?
Yes , so we have a website , wwwuniversaldrugstorecom . So the first step in the process would be to set up an account and from there we would send you a welcome journey to get your account formalized .
Once that happens , it's basically shopping time , so you can look through the website , add to cart , check out and purchase the products that you need , and then from there we will then contact you to get all of the information required .
So if you purchase a prescription medication , we would obviously need a valid prescription , which we would need from you , and then from there we go through our validation process . So that means we would be going through the documents , contacting your doctor to making sure everything is legitimate , and once that is all approved , then your order will be confirmed .
And that is when you're charged too . So you're not charged in the initial phase , you're charged after everything is approved and then it's shipped right to your doorstep . But I will also call out that , like I said , the business started in 2001 . Initially it was just calls and fax machines , and we still have that infrastructure today .
So if you're not comfortable using a website , or if you don't want to , you can very much do this whole process over the phone fax machine . So multiple options .
Okay , I have a question that is not even in our notes and I'm not even sure which one of you needs to answer this question , but for someone like me , I'm on some specialty medications , I have rheumatoid arthritis , and so I can't just pick that up at a regular CVS , do you ?
offer the specialty medications as well . Jamie , maybe I'll pass this to you , but it would depend on the medicine , because we do have strong assortment and multiple countries resourcing . So I want to say there's a higher chance we would have it versus other pharmacies . But , Jamie , I'll pass it to you .
Yeah , it would depend on the medication . A lot of those specialty ones yes , there's , there should be some of them that we do we could find in other countries , but it just depends .
That's good to know . And what should patients know about shipping times and availability ? Are there particular challenges that come with getting prescriptions from outside their home country For a new ?
customer , you can anticipate a two to four week process to get your medicine . But I will caveat that is a like once you go through that process , once the refill process is seamless , it's the hit of a button . We handle it all very easy . It'll arrive in a very much a cycle when you need it .
So it's kind of some upfront time for long term savings and convenience . But that's kind of more about the shipping times .
Okay , and I think you know that's something that most of us would expect anyway when you're ordering something online like that . Yeah , do you also offer any additional support services like prescription management or consultations with pharmacists like Jamie to help patients keep track of their medications ?
Yeah , so we . That process is very standard to a typical pharmacy . We have a staff of pharmacists available to chat and consult on medication . They're available Monday through Friday . We also have backend software . That is the same software that a normal pharmacy would use .
Essentially , if you're buying two drugs from us , it can call out interactions and then we can have a consult with you . But , Jamie , feel free to add if there is anything else there you wanted to call out .
No , and we do have . I guess we have callbacks , I guess , when there are people available
¶ Navigating Drug Safety and Patient Care
also .
What would you say to someone who's hesitant to use an international pharmacy due to the stigma around safety and legality , and how can they be confident in the care they receive through the universal drugstore ?
Yeah , that's a really fair and great question . That was definitely something that I was thinking about when it came to UDS as well , and something that I come back to over and over again is the fact that we have been operating for 20 years . So again I'm like , okay , something is working , people are satisfied , people are getting what they need .
But the other way I think about it is you're essentially sourcing the same medication . So , for example , if I'm in the US and I want to purchase Advil and then I go back to Canada and I purchase Advil there , they're both Advil made by Pfizer . It's just a border . So that's kind of the way that I think about it .
And then the last point that I will say , too , is , again , we are here to navigate it with you . We have a huge staff of customer service support who are happy to answer any questions that you may have . They're great , they're very active . So if you do have any questions that you have , call us .
All right . So , jamie , I'm kind of turning it over to you at this point . As a consulting pharmacist for Universal Drugstore , how do you help guide the creation of content that is both educational and accessible for patients managing chronic illnesses ?
Well , a little background . I graduated pharmacy school at the University of South Carolina in 2002 . I've been writing medical and drug blogs for 10 plus years . I mean I've written a couple of thousand , literally reviewed and edited probably even more for a number of companies .
We have writers on staff pharmacy school students , people with medical backgrounds that are helping write some of the drug content and stuff . When it comes to our content , we want it to be unbiased , honest , fair . So none of it's sponsored , nobody's paying us to write a blog or anything about a medication . So you know it's all up to me .
You know it's objective , it's honest . You know we write it . We try to write it to where anybody with any educational background can understand it , because I know a lot of , you know I do a lot of clinical studies and stuff and most people can't understand it . So we try to , you know , put it in a way everybody can understand .
Yeah , jamie will send feedback to our writers and be like too clinical , too technical . The information's correct , but we need this to be something everyone can understand understand .
That's important because a lot of times you get people that they're not in the medical field , they're not familiar and they just want to understand what the medication is , how it's going to help them . The basics .
I worked retail pharmacy for 10 plus years , so I've , you know , I've seen every walk of life , every bit of education , doctors to high school dropout .
So you know I learned to how to communicate very clinical information to the everyday person , and that's what I , that's what I'm trying to strive for with the content we have on there Easy to digest , straightforward , objective , honest .
That's fantastic and absolutely important for all of us to have . When it comes to drug-related trends , especially in the context of the autoimmune disease , like rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis , what recent developments have you noticed and how does Universal Drugstore ensure patients are well-informed ?
You know my mother had rheumatoid arthritis . So you know , back then that was early 2000s , I think what was available ? Methotrexate , rava , maybe corticosteroids , opioids we just started on that .
Not a lot .
I think she tried Humira and maybe Remicade , if I remember correctly . But even in the past 10 years there have been so many developments . I mean oral medications that will help patients not have to go get an infusion once every four to eight weeks or give an injection themselves . I've seen research on stem cell therapy .
That looks promising , even though I think that would probably be a little too expensive for the average consumer
¶ Empowering Patients With Chronic Illness
. You know we looked at trends . I subscribe to a bunch of mailing lists from like Medscape and big med info companies . I get way too many emails and I can go through . Try to pick out , you know , some of the most relevant and popular ones for our consumers . Work with Laura and her team . You know we look at trends .
Like I said , we look and see what people are actually searching so we can kind of tailor some of the information to . You know what our consumers might actually be looking for that's definitely helpful .
What role do you play in making sure that the content on the Universal Drugstore website reflects accurate and up-to-date medical information , especially concerning new treatments or potential side effects ?
I review every piece of information that's on that site . I have literally read or approved everything . I look at sources .
I like clinical studies , you know , I don't just I don't like sourcing , just other websites , because you know I look at their website and I see where their sources are and then I go back to make sure it's accurate and not misinterpreted and stuff like that . It's a lot of reading , a lot of clinical studies .
I bet I can only imagine how much reading you have to do in a day .
I don't read for fun anymore , because I read so much .
You're fast , though , like you're a fast reader , I'm always like whoa .
Wow , how do you collaborate with the Universal Drugstore team to address the most common medication-related concerns from chronic illness patients , and what resources do you recommend to empower them in their health journey ?
So I work with Laura . We have , you know , teams with like SEO and people that can actually run numbers on . You know , if I see something I'll ask them . You know how popular is this ? You know are people actually looking for this ?
You know we try to find something that seems relevant to our customers , but that is , you know also , you know , fairly popular that . You know the more popular is obviously , the more people it might reach . What was the second part of your question ? I'm sorry .
Here . Give me two seconds and I will pull it up . That's okay , Okay .
Second part of the question , and what resources do you recommend ? You know like , especially for chronic illnesses ? There are a lot of , you know , national foundations for each chronic illness . You can also Google , look for like local , you know , arthritis , cancer societies , that sort of thing .
You know , when you have an illness like that , you know having a community of people that you can rely on for support , information and that sort of thing is vital .
I think that's a good point . I've been a part of the arthritis society professionally and personally and like I think it is a excellent spot for , and again like I had juvenile arthritis , so it was great resources for my parents who are like helping to navigate it . But I think that's a great point , jamie .
And I've also I've worked with like when I lived in , you know I had worked with some a local cancer society and I you know I've done other you know stuff like that . So and that was amazing I mean , just like the community aspect of that was support wise was just amazing . I can't express how helpful that was .
The help that I saw it gave to people that were going through something so hard like that .
If I can agree with you to any more than that because , honestly , I think you know it can be a dangerous thing to Google , right . But at the same time , if you are being careful at what you are researching and looking into and looking for reputable companies and local , it's going to find you a wealth of knowledge and support .
Yeah , If you Google the like arthritis foundation , I think my good days was a good one that I saw that had like a good list of chronic illnesses , that had like local kind of chapters I guess . But yeah , it's , it's out there yet , but it's sometimes it is hard to figure out what's reputable and what's not .
Yeah , I feel like even I've seen things that are like tips for if you're newly diagnosed , tips for , like , people who have arthritis in their hands , like how to open a jar , like things that you could do at home to like tactically improve your day-to-day life , which so big and small , which I think is super important .
I agree , and I think sometimes those step-by-step instructions , as simple as they sound , they are really important and they are very helpful to people that are new in that area of life . Yeah , so we've ran through all of our questions , but I know there's so much more we could probably discuss .
Laura , is there anything that we haven't gone over that you can think of that is important for listeners to hear ? Let ?
me think I feel like I covered kind of the basics of what our company is , what we do , but I will say like , if there are any listeners out here that do have feedback or questions about the service , like , feel free to contact us . Our social media handles are at like .
We're very active on Instagram , so at Universal Drugstore I am on it and my coworkers are on it , so if you do want to access us , that is a great channel to do that . But , again , we are very much evolving . So if there is any feedback on how we could better serve the chronic condition community , I would say that would be really helpful .
If there's information that anyone is looking for that maybe it didn't share , or feedback they had on the website , please let me know . That is something we're really open to talking about .
Absolutely . And , jamie , do you have anything that you would ?
like to add . I want to shout out to Jeff Doan , the owner of the company
¶ Global Pharmacy Savings and Consumer Care
. He's a pharmacist as well . He really has structured a very consumer-driven , seamless business . Being a pharmacist , he knows that the consumer is the most important thing safety , availability , that sort of thing . And I'm not sure how much your listeners know about medicines from other countries .
The way and the reason why it is cheaper in other countries is because their government sets price limits on what they can charge . So the U S it's just capitalism at its finest , so it's as much as they can get . So that's why you can save so much money sourcing it from other countries .
Absolutely Good point . Well , I'm so excited that the two of you could take the time out of your day to come and share with our listeners all about everything that Universal Drugstore has to offer , and I , just like I said , I appreciate your time and all of the knowledge that you've shared .
Thank you so much for having us .
Thanks for having us .
Well , I will share all of the important links and information in the show notes so everyone can get in contact with you and get this set up . And listeners , until next time . Don't forget your spoon .